Nebraska player allegedly hits MU fan

Tom Wyrwich

10/13/2003

Lost in charging the field Saturday was one Missouri fan, whom a Nebraska player allegedly hit. Brad Smith -- who else? -- helped the fan up and told coach Gary Pinkel about it, and now the schools are handling the matter internally. Inside Mizzou talked to Smith about the altercation Saturday, and talked to Pinkel on Monday and has the latest news and stunning photographs.

Here's what is known: a Nebraska player hit a Missouri fan who charged the field Saturday. Brad Smith helped the fan up, and then told coach Gary Pinkel about it.

The rest is in doubt, and the two teams aren't saying much about it.

KOMU/Channel 8 reporter-photographer Ben Arnet told the Associated Press that the Columbia station had video of Nebraska's Kellen Huston, No. 29, hitting the fan. Arnet was the sideline cameraman for Saturday's game. Nebraska spokesman Shamus McKnight confirmed Huston, a holder, made the trip to Columbia.

"We'll try to view the tape of it," Nebraska coach Frank Solich said. "Other than that, I don't have much knowledge of what transpired."

AP photographs taken from a television taping of the incident.

Smith wouldn't comment Monday about the altercation, but he did talk about the altercation Saturday after the game.

"You could see (the fan's) nose way over here and everything," Smith said. "It was a pretty sad situation. There's no room for punching people in the face like that."

On the Big 12 Conference Call, Pinkel said Smith told him the number of the player who hit the fan, but Pinkel said he nor Smith would comment on it, preferring to keep the matter between the two schools.

"He's talked to our administration here and they asked him a couple questions about it," Pinkel said. "They're going to take care of that internally."

Pinkel said Smith came up to him right after he helped the fan up. He said that tells more about Smith's well-documented character.

"It's amazing," Pinkel said. "We just won a fairly big game, and played fairly well, and he comes right up to me, and I thought he was going to hug me, and he starts telling me about this guy that got knocked down. That's the kind of player he is. That's the kind of kid he is. It really bothered him to tell it. I told him, ‘We'll take care of it. Enjoy yourself for a little bit.'"

"Oh my god, man, that kind of sucks," Outlaw said. "When you're the No. 7 team in the country, and you just lost in a big game, you got a lot of anger built up. If that happened, I'm sorry that happened to a fan."